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| Current
Issue: Vol. 14/1 (46) |
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TCDS
Utilizes Internet to Promote Democratic Studies
Meron Tesfa Michael
Moving
beyond the walls of traditional establishments, TCDS is making a quantum
leap from the desk to the desktop this spring, as it teams up with the
al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan (KNU), to
launch an initiative to broadcast lectures and seminars over the Internet
to enhance democratic studies in Central Asia.
Building on prior work in the region, TCDS set off a three-year university
partnership program in October 2003 with KNU’s International Relations
Department. Sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, the program will facilitate a wide-ranging
exchange between the two universities around the theme of democratic
studies, with special attention paid to the social, cultural, educational,
and political dimensions of democracy in the United States and Central
Asia.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, its former republics
in Central Asia have introduced some measure of formal democracy. Recognizing
the need for a new generation of leaders who are committed to civil
societies in Kazakhstan and the concrete educational needs of academic
institutions in the region, the partnership program this spring will
launch a Resource Center for Democratic Governance (RCDG). Located at
KNU, RCDG will initially serve as the locus for a three-year intensive
program of faculty and curricular development activities and as a hub
where faculty members and students in Kazakhstan will be able to gather
for discussion and debate.
Equipped with computers, Internet access, a solid online research/resource
library, and curricular manuals, RCDG is designed to create a new space
for democratic training and discussion in Kazakhstan, where academics,
policy makers, and civil-society activists will have an opportunity
to discuss policy issues.
A specific segment of the project will consist of a series of activities
utilizing the Internet. In the age of increasing globalization, both
universities in New York and Almaty recognize that webcasting -- a medium
that enables an unlimited audience, regardless of location, to participate
in discussions, initiatives, and currents transcending the confines
of locality -- is a vital means of communications technology that will
help to preserve and make available valuable learning materials. Beginning
this spring, a series of seminars and workshops will convene at the
New School in which all interested parties in the worldwide TCDS network
can participate by logging in to a specific Web site. Lectures, follow-up
discussion transcripts, and literatures on future sessions will be archived
on the TCDS Web site and made available for future use.
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University is a leading institution of higher
education in Kazakhstan and has broad influence on the development of
a standard curriculum that is then used at other Kazakh universities.
Besides the electronic workshops, the university partnership program
will include curricular workshops; summer exchange programs; provision
of books and other learning tools; working visits; one-semester fellowships
in New York; and a concluding conference at KNU featuring Kazakh participants.For
more information on the webcast workshop series, follow our notices
at www.newschool.edu/centers/tcds.
Meron Tesfa Michael is a first-year Liberal Studies
student at the Graduate Faculty and TCDS webmistress.
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